Stupid Me!!!

I got some DiMarzio custom tapers for my Fender P yesterday. I put them in with a new cap, and output jack. First mod of this type for me, so of course I screwed up. Well sort of.

Everything went in fine, and works great. However the original chrome knobs don't fit on the DiMarzio split shaft pots, and I broke one of the shafts in the process of trying to squeeze it together a bit in efforts to make the knobs fit. D'oh! At least I didn't cut the new strings yet!

So now I've got to get another pot, and two chrome DiMarzio knobs and take it all apart again tonight. Hopefully the store I got the pots at have DiMarzio knobs as well!

The good thing though, is I can totally feel and hear a difference between the new pots and the old ones.

I got some DiMarzio custom tapers for my Fender P yesterday. I put them in with a new cap, and output jack. First mod of this type for me, so of course I screwed up. Well sort of.

Everything went in fine, and works great. However the original chrome knobs don't fit on the DiMarzio split shaft pots, and I broke one of the shafts in the process of trying to squeeze it together a bit in efforts to make the knobs fit. D'oh! At least I didn't cut the new strings yet!

So now I've got to get another pot, and two chrome DiMarzio knobs and take it all apart again tonight. Hopefully the store I got the pots at have DiMarzio knobs as well!

The good thing though, is I can totally feel and hear a difference between the new pots and the old ones.

Live and learn I suppose.

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well...I don't know how handy you are but,
the pot should be a CTS pot..and you can open the can by bending the tabs, and carefully pulling the pot apart. The shaft is replaceable..and you can use one from a beat CTS pot with the same length shaft (if you happen to have one around). I like the brass shafts a bit better then the aluminum ones...they seem to hold up better.

I thought about that, but the only spares I have are the ones I replaced. The have aluminum shafts, and are shorter than the DiMarzio (brass) ones I replaced them with. The shafts on the new pots are also wider and longer so that's why they won't work with the original knobs. No big deal I guess, I'll get another one on the way home from work. 6.95 it was I think. The knobs will surely be more though.

Turns out I was able to break the "stronger" brass ones!

Have practice on Friday though, so I need to get her up and running right quick!

Places like Guitarpartsresource sell sleeves that let you put solid-shaft knobs onto split-shaft pots. They provide just enough structure to keep from causing a problem like you had.

Don't feel so bad. I had a friend bring over a Fender reverb tank for me to work on and he had ripped the shaft OUT of the pot because he didn't know there was a set-screw on the knob. That is much harder to repair because the pots are a lot harder to find.

I remember an repair article from bass player a while back where a guy's bass had split shafts and knobs that were for solid shafts. The knobs had broken half of one of the splits off, so the luthier cut part of a wooden dowel rod off and glued it in there to give the knob some thing to bite on. Then he sliced up a guitar pick to fit in the other split shaft to keep it from happening there.

Funny, that's exactly what I did. The only knobs I could find at the closest store to me were for solid shafts. So I cut a little piece of metal as a spacer and glued it in between the unbroken and broken side. Not bad, though the knob isn't on exactly straight so it's a tiny bit wobbly. I'll replace the pot again eventually.